I know I'm gonna get raked over the coals for this one, but just hear me out...

I think the WDFW is wasting too much money on put and take 'legal' stockers. I heard a few years ago that it cost nearly a dollar to grow a trout to legal size (I'm sure it's more now), and I read that the WDFW was planting 2.6 million trout this year. Yeah, I know, they're good for kids, ect, ect, but...

That's a lot of money, and think about how many of those lakes that they've stocked have sub-par launching facilities, docks that are falling apart, or no dock at all. Now, I'm not proposing that they stop the stocking program altogether, but I think that a hard look needs to be taken at exactly what we get out of it. It's a fact of life that many of those stocker fish are never caught by anglers, rather they disappear down the gullets of predators like cormorants, eagles, and sometimes other fish like larger trout and bass. I was out at Gissberg Ponds several times a few years ago, and there was at least one osprey there for more than two months dining on our tax dollars three or more meals a day.

IMHO, they need to cut the stocker program, even cutting it by 100,000 fish would pay for improved launch facilities at several lakes, as well as building a dock or two. Instead, they should look at improving conditions for fish that can reproduce naturally and hold up to angling pressure, which may not necessarily be trout.

Opinions?